Acetaminophen detoxification in cucumber plants via induction of glutathione S-transferases

Abstract

Many pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) enter agroecosystems during reuse of treated wastewater and biosolids, presenting potential impacts on plant development. Here, acetaminophen, one of the most-used pharmaceuticals, was used to explore roles of glutathione (GSH) conjugation in its biotransformation in crop plants. Acetaminophen was taken up by plants, and conjugated quickly with GSH. After exposure to 5 mg L acetaminophen for 144 h, GSH-acetaminophen conjugates were 15.2 ± 1.3 nmol g and 1.2 ± 0.1 nmol g in cucumber roots and leaves, respectively. Glutathione-acetaminophen was also observed in common bean, alfalfa, tomato, and wheat. Inhibition of cytochrome P450 decreased GSH conjugation. Moreover, the GSH conjugate was found to further convert to cysteine and N-acetylcysteine conjugates. Glutathione S-transferase activity was significantly elevated after exposure to acetaminophen, while levels of GSH decreased by 55.4% in roots after 48 h, followed by a gradual recovery thereafter. Enzymes involved in GSH synthesis, regeneration and transport were consistently induced to maintain the GSH homeostasis. Therefore, GST-mediated conjugation likely played a crucial role in minimizing phytotoxicity of acetaminophen and other PPCPs in plants.

Cu@Au self-assembled nanoparticles as SERS-active substrates for (bio)molecular sensing

“…Effective and reliable detection of pharmaceutical drugs is a remaining goal in Analytical Chemistry because of their potential environmental impact. Acetaminophen is an extensively used pharmaceutical, which cannot be efficiently removed from treated waste water and, therefore, tends to reach agricultural activity even at the ppm level [69]. Acetaminophen detection has been carried out using several different techniques, including electrochemical methods, infrared spectroscopy, chromatography and electrophoresis, among many others [70][71][72][73][74], which are certainly complex and highly-time consuming.…”

Impact of Irrigation with Treated Domestic Wastewater on Squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) Fruit and Seed under Semi-Arid Conditions

“…Using wastewater may affect human health as well as the environment because of its content of salts, heavy metals, bacteria and viruses, and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), depending on the source of wastewater, its composition, and treatment technique [6]. Therefore, many laboratory studies investigated the potential uptake, translocation and accumulation of CECs in plants even at high concentrations that do not exist actually in nature [4,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Similarly, Naser et al [30] also reported an accumulation of some heavy metals in leafy vegetables irrigated by municipal and industrial untreated wastewater.…”

Do Specialized Cells Play a Major Role in Organic Xenobiotic Detoxification in Higher Plants?

“…Based on animal detoxification mechanisms of organic xenobiotics, related metabolic pathways were explored in plants, and similar responses were described (including antioxidant responses to cope with oxidative stress). Although organic xenobiotic metabolization and transformation by plants remain incompletely characterized, a model has been proposed (Edwards et al, 2005;Edwards et al, 2011;El Amrani et al, 2015;Sun et al, 2019) with three major steps: (1) signaling, (2) transport and transformation, and (3) compartmentalization. This model involves a myriad of enzymes from the xenome, among alpha-beta hydrolases (e.g.…”